The 2019 Fight Toxic Prisons Convergence is taking place June 14-17 in Gainesville, Florida and will include speakers, panels, workshops, protests and cultural activities exploring the intersections of anti-prison and environmental struggles. We are currently confirming venue, speakers, music and action plans for the conference and are excited to share updates with y’all in the coming months. We maintain a commitment to creating a space in which those most directly impacted are at the forefront of this conversation.

The Convergence is always free, we just ask for a sliding scale donation ($25 – $50) to help us cover costs, primarily to provide assistance with transportation, food and housing to make the event broadly accessible. Folks who can donate more make it possible for people to attend who may otherwise not be able to. If you want to help fundraise for the Convergence, that would be amazing! We have a general fundraising page here.

Travel:

The closest airport is the Gainesville Regional Airport, though tickets are often much less expensive into Jacksonville, Orlando or Tampa (all in 1 – 2 hour drive). There are also Greyhound, Megabus and Amtrak train routes. Please get in touch with us directly if you have any additional questions about travel and housing logistics which are not addressed in the registration form.

Background:

Fight Toxic Prisons seeks to build momentum across, bridges between, and solidarity amongst the movements for ecological justice, environmental justice, and prison reform/abolition. Through our annual convergences we seek to create space at the intersections of various movements and across prison walls (at our 2018 convergence 9 prisoners called in to speak on panels and breakout groups), a space through which we can collectively explore how we might achieve liberation and justice. A space where we can directly share and learn from tactics, strategies, and experiences beyond the scope of our particular movements and campaigns that might play decisive roles in our local victories.

As of March 18th at 12AM, eight people are now on hunger strike at Holman Correctional Facility, protesting solitary confinement without justification.

These are their names:

Kotoni Tellis (AIS# 223155)

Marcus Lee (AIS# 175056)

Mario Avila (AIS# 259514)

Corey Burroughs (AIS# 207639)

Earl Taylor 3rd (AIS# 168616)

Tyree Cochran (AIS# 172306)

Earl Manassa (AIS# 175099)

Joseph Torres (AIS# 00276052) – started March 19th

It’s important that we show support and keep the pressure up on the Alabama Department of Corrections. To be clear: We don’t engage with the ADOC because we think they share our concerns. We are engaging with them to demand accountability by disrupting business as usual. This communications zap is a digital blockade, but it only works if enough of us keep calling/ faxing/ e-mailing in.

Let’s get these folks out of solitary confinement!

Who to call: (if you only have a few minutes, the first 3 numbers are our primary targets)

Hello, my name is _ and I’m calling from _, you should be aware this call is being recorded. I recently learned that 8 people in Holman Correctional Facility are on hunger strike in response to being placed in the SHU with no infractions or disciplinary charges. They were transferred to Holman on February 28th and I am very concerned about their health and safety. I demand their immediate release back into general population.

Are there plans to release them to general population as soon as possible?

(if not), Who can I speak to about this ? I will keep calling until all the hunger strikers are released.

Notes: Be stern with the individual who answers the phone. Insist to speak to who you call for. Give no more information to secretary other than your name. Record calls if possible. Report any new info to unheardvoices78@gmail.com

Email ADOC offices:

jefferson.Dunn@doc.alabama.gov

constituent.services@doc.alabama.gov

bob.horton@doc.alabama.gov

webmaster@doc.alabama.gov

Suggested E-mail Script:

“To whom it may concern:

I am writing to demand justification and accountability for the Alabama Department of Corrections blatant disregard for its own policies. I recently learned that eight inmates under your care started a hunger strike on March 18th, 2019, in response to being placed in a solitary housing unit without any infraction, disciplinary charge, or explanation. The wardens at Holman CF have said that they are acting on orders from ADOC Commissioner Jefferson Dunn.

A sustained mass hunger strike can have very serious implications.

I demand an explanation for this arbitrary detention, the immediate release of all 8 hunger strikers from solitary confinement, and an end to further retaliation.

Are there plans to release them to general population as soon as possible?

Note: Some other news sources have quoted an announcement from ADOC stating that 3 of the strikers have “accepted food”. However it has been confirmed directly on our end that in fact one striker has left, but another (Joseph Torres) joined the strike on March 19th. ADOC’s claims lack any sort of medical evidence or any documentation period, which should be the bare minimum to support such claims. Based on inside correspondences we are confident that there are currently still 8 folks refusing food.

[This FAQ document is a work in progress, as part of an organizing collaboration which has grown out of #OperationPUSH. You can TAKE ACTION here. Please share your suggestions on the FAQ at GainesvilleIWOC@gmail.com]

1.What is prison slavery?

(n.) bondage, servitude, human-trafficking and/or unpaid labor associated with the modern prison system. When the 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution ended chattel slavery, it included an exception clause for prisoners which indicated that people convicted of crimes could still be subjected to state-sanctioned slavery (i.e. confinement and forced labor.)

2.Why does this slavery still exist?

The State of Florida also views state-run slave labor as justified by criminal convictions, similar to how it views state executions as justified by criminal convictions, or how it has viewed disenfranchisement as justified by criminal convictions (and still does for certain convictions). The State presents prison labor as part of rehabilitation, but in reality it is just utilized as a cost-saving measure for government agencies, universities and private companies who enter into the contracts. Rehabilitation involves dignity and respect. These contracts are simply exploitation of desperate and vulnerable people, many who were dragged into the criminal justice system as youth as a result of poverty, lack of basic services and ineffective legal council.

While Florida doesn’t have an explicit “exception clause” in its constitution, there is language in State Statutes which can and should be changed to address the matter of prison slavery. For example Ch. 946 which excludes working prisoners from basic labor protections, or Ch. 787 which excludes prisoners from human trafficking protections.

“Prison jobs are still entirely unpaid in five states, except for in rare exceptions—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Texas—all of which dubiously rank in the top 10 in state imprisonment rates per 100,000 residents.” Source

3. Don’t the prisoners like going outside?

Yes, and they should be able to. But prisons are supposed to be about rehabilitation and public safety, not cost-saving tools for government agencies, universities or private companies. The fact that prisoners prefer doing work to being warehoused is not evidence that they love the work assignments but instead speaks to how bad things are behind those walls. People in prison are desperate to just feel like a human being again. Stealing their labor doesn’t accomplish that, even though it’s nice outside.

4. Aren’t the jobs given on a volunteer basis?

Prisoners can and often do request transfers to the lower security, smaller facilities which house the state’s convict leasing program, but the decision to move is not theirs, just as the decision to call in sick or file a workers compensation complaint does not exist. Work orders are mandatory and enforceable by physical punishment and psychological torture.

5. Does this cost the City or County?

Yes. Most all FDOC contracts require paying the cost of overseers. This alone amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars locally, in essence subsidizing the prison system rather than paying free workers. In the case of the FDOT road work contracts with FDOC, one state agency pays the other a per-hour rate, per prisoner, but the prisoners see none of this money. FDOT paid FDOC over 19 million last year alone. Florida taxpayers cover the 2.9 billion it takes yearly to keep FDOC running and then pay again on the local level for these contracts.

6. What about the skills they learn at work?

Training is negligible. Though the state uses prisoners for jobs involving skilled trades, such as painting, plumbing, building maintenance, etc., the prison laborers are used primarily for grunt work, and what training exists is generally regarded as pitiful. One former prisoners explains, “I received a cabinet making certification and was even made a teacher’s aide. I couldn’t build you a cabinet to save my life. I learned nothing. The “skills” are just something that looks good on paper for the DOC.” Even if skills were to be learned, prisoners are often denied the chance to put them to use once released because of felony convictions. Like the prisoners in CA who are used to fight fires but will never be allowed to work as firefighters in our world.

7. Don’t the prisoners earn time off their sentence in exchange for their labor?

Prisoners get “good time” off their sentence regardless of work. Current policy mandates doing 85% of a sentence. Many prison slaves enter work camps after maxing out their good time. So they receive no compensation.

8. Shouldn’t prisoners be required to work to pay off the cost of housing and feeding them?

The work done by prisoners through FDOC does not offset the cost of their food and housing. As it stands, people imprisoned in FDOC are not served enough calories in a day, let alone useful calories, to sustain an adult and the food if oftentimes spoiled or not fit for human consumption. Prisoners already must supplement the poor nutrition provided by FDOC with commissary items. Because they earn no money, they must hustle or depend on family for these supplemental items they are overcharged for, sometimes as much as five times what we pay out here. Prisoners with outside work assignments rely even more so on commissary food because they are only given a small bag lunch while working all day. At Gainesville Work Camp, officers are notorious for keeping the commissary closed as punishment and these workers go hungry as a result.

9. How will the city/county get this work done without prison labor? Won’t it cost the taxpayers more money?

Just like the majority of the work that happens in our city, from street cleaners to accountants, we will pay people to do it. Why reserve a handful of positions for slave labor when we can take a sweeping moral stand against this dehumanizing practice?

10. But they did the crime, isn’t this just part of their punishment?

No. These labor contracts are a relic from our ugly past. It is the same convict leasing that sustained the southern economies after the 13th Amendment limited slavery to people convicted of crimes in 1865. FDOC was created just a few years later in 1868 to manage the workers and the leases – the same year felon voter disenfranchisement was written into Florida’s constitution.

Being removed from society and abused daily is punishment, the labor they perform is just another way to exploit poor people and we, as the benefactors, are complicit. If these people are safe enough to work in our parks, playgrounds, and campuses then they are safe enough to live in our world.

11. How will this help the movement to change the prison system

Ending these contracts is one major step in removing moral authority from an inherently corrupt and abusive agency of the state. Other city, counties and agencies can follow this example, costing FDOC much more than money. This is part of a national prisoner-led movement, which FL prisoners have been very active in. Eroding public support and sympathy for this agency will make increasing space for needed changes to come to the surface, from daily improvements to conditions of confinement to fundamental, systemic changes in criminal justice policy.

Lieber CI has been on an indefinite lock-down since April 2018. Inmate’s windows have been blotted out by storm shutters and calls to SCDC and the warden’s office have yielded only defensiveness and aggression, “Those shutters aren’t coming down! They can see rays of light through the slats.”

Concerned masses have flooded the institution with calls only to be hung up on, screamed at and delivered terse narratives that “the inmates are liars.” Denying clean drinking water and forced exposure to sewage while caged, which puts the incarcerated population at risk for a Hepatitis A [HAV] outbreak, are blatant and severe human rights violations that need to be addressed NOW.

It is clear through numerous phone zaps placing pressure on those who create and exacerbate unsafe conditions for the incarcerated inside of Lieber that they are well aware of the violations they continue to commit. Warden Randall Williams’ office has been particularly adversarial and hostile towards anyone asserting that rights of inmates be recognized.

These operations are under the watch of South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster who, like Warden Williams, has been consistently made aware of right’s violations inside of Lieber, yet violations continue unabated.

Alabama Department of Corrections has once again acted in retaliation against Robert Earl Council. This is not the first time that he has been targeted.

Robert Earl Council, one of the founders of the Free Alabama Movement (FAM), is known both in and outside of Alabama’s prisons as a leader of peaceful prison strikes, and a teacher of peace, education and spiritual development. Council has once again been placed in solitary following the riot and homicide at Holman Correctional Facility on December 2nd.

Council was placed in solitary on trumped up disciplinary charges by Lt. Thrasher at Donaldson Correctional Facility on December 7th for “failure to obey a direct order” after Lt. Thrasher entered the cell block to conduct a routine inspection. Council brought to Lt. Thrashers attention the fact that the cell block’s water fountain was out of order, and needed a repair by the institution’s maintenance. Thrasher, being aware of “who” Council is and his involvement in Alabama and national prison strikes, immediately seized the opportunity to become aggressive with Council.

Thrasher gave Council a direct order to “fix” the water fountain. Council then pointed out to Thrasher that he (Council) was not assigned nor qualified to do repairs to the institution nor did he believe in doing labor without being compensated for his work. At that time Thrasher became verbally aggressive with Council and voiced threats, while Warden Pickens (who was present) stood by and failed to intervene.
Council then asked the above mentioned lieutenant his correct name in order to properly file a complaint. Thrasher immediately asked Council if he was threatening him.

As a result, Council was placed in solitary once again, facing two institutional disciplinary infractions. The purpose of this punishment was simply to remove Council’s influence from bringing peace within the prisons following the riot at Holman.

ADOC is guilty of strategically removing all confined citizens who are influential in maintaining peace. This both allows and promotes chaos within ADOC prisons. Since Council’s confinement on December 7th, there have been at least 2 more riots in Holman CF, resulting in at least three hospitalizations. Council’s situation represents a pattern of retaliation that ADOC carries out daily, in part to maintain instability among prisoners. This is part of a larger phenomena of ADOC’s violent practices, which Council described in 2016 as the Holman Project.

This press release was published by FAM Queen Team and Unheard Voices OTCJ, both civil rights activist organizations. They demand that ADOC end all retaliatory acts against Robert Earl Council (Kinetik Justice) and any others in his class confined in ADOC.

Kinetic Justice of the Free Alabama Movement

]]>https://fighttoxicprisons.wordpress.com/2018/12/17/incarcerated-organizer-faces-repression-following-violence-in-adoc/feed/0kineticEF! Roadshow.. yeehaw!!!Prisoners Call for Investigation into Alabama DOC Following Lethal Unrest at Holmanhttps://fighttoxicprisons.wordpress.com/2018/12/03/the-holman-project-prisoners-call-for-investigation-into-adoc-following-violence/
https://fighttoxicprisons.wordpress.com/2018/12/03/the-holman-project-prisoners-call-for-investigation-into-adoc-following-violence/#respondMon, 03 Dec 2018 23:57:43 +0000http://fighttoxicprisons.wordpress.com/?p=2113Read More]]>UPDATE 12/13/18: Additional incidents of violence occurred at Holman Correctional Facility on December 8 and 11 [reported to FTP directly by prisoners], further indicating the concept of a “Holman Project,” as explained below. According to a contact inside, the December 11 incident included “Correctional officers beating confined citizens and destroying personal property.”

The following statement is based on communication between prisoners at Holman and an organizer with Fight Toxic Prisons. FTP views Alabama’s chronic conditions of overcrowding, corruption and abuse as matters of environmental justice.

“The Holman Project Continues”

On December 2, 2018, a prisoner was stabbed to death and several others were critically injured in multiple outbreaks of violence at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, AL. This has been verified by prisoners’ organizations as well as local news outlets, and the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) has stated that the facility is now on lockdown pending investigation.

Following this incident, prisoners affiliated with community organizations active inside Holman spoke with a Fight Toxic Prisons organizer. As they explain, the recurring unrest in Holman is a direct result of neglect, overcrowding, lack of safety protocols, targeted transfer programs, and organizational conflict, all of which have been instigated and inflamed by the ADOC.

Swift Justice, a prisoner, correspondent and founder of Unheard Voices of the Concrete Jungle, explained the ADOC practice of knowingly and even strategically placing rival gang leaders together in the most overcrowded and understaffed conditions at Holman.

“ADOC does this while demonizing inmates, evading responsibility, and using the event for political leverage to advance prison agendas for increasing incarceration rates and militarization of the prison industrial complex,” Swift stated.

The Free Alabama Movement (FAM) calls this The Holman Project, describing it as a “conspiracy to commit murder for political gain”. That is, the Holman Project is an initiative by prison officials and state legislatures to manufacture violent conflict intended to bolster the political push for new prison construction.

Another prisoner, Kinetic Justice, representing FAM noted, “their agenda and plan has not changed. Sacrificing lives to present a picture that is intended to scare the public into allocating almost a billion dollars to build some more prisons. Profit over people’s humanity.”

We know the December 2 event at Holman is not an isolated incident but rather a manifestation of constant conditions of violence erupting into bloodshed under ADOC’s oversight. This overlooked crisis is rampant all over the country.

The same unrest occurred in April 2018 at Lee Correctional Facility in Bishmore, SC, where 7 inmates were killed and 17 more were wounded. The events at Lee CF sparked the 2018 Nationwide Prison Strike earlier this year, in which prisoners all over the country collectively demanded humane living conditions, access to rehabilitation, sentencing reform and an end to modern day slavery.

“[ADOC has] made it crystal-clear what they think about the lives and rehabilitation of our loved ones. So, the only real question is what do we think… and how do we choose to show it?” asked Kinetic Justice.

FAM is assembling a community emergency response task force demanding to go inside Holman on a fact finding mission. FAM and Unheard Voices will be providing updates as information is gathered and more press releases will follow.

Media Contact: FightToxicPrisons@gmail.com [Lawyers, prisoners and community activists available for comment.]

Photos below by Jordan Mazurek. All images available for public use, courtesy of Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons

Washington, DC — Lawyers with the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons and the Abolitionist Law Center (ALC) have filed an unprecedented environmental lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) this week on behalf of federal prisoners from across the country. Plaintiffs in the case say they were not properly informed about the $444 million dollar plans to construct a new federal prison on top of a former coal mine, next to an active mine and coal sludge pond, which could house them in the near future. Twenty-one prisoners are listed as plaintiffs, along with the ALC.

Pictures of proposed prison site and relevant surrounding areas can be found below.

The lawsuit comes after more than three years of a controversial Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process conducted by the BOP and the consulting firm, Cardno. Initial public comments submitted by attorney Emily Posner in 2017 on behalf of the ALC can be found here.

The lawsuit states that federal prisoners should have been considered as parties with legally-required access to EIS documents, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The EIS process outlines a wide range of social and environmental impacts, including potential health risks and alternatives to construction, which prisoners are uniquely situated to provide insight on and particularly vulnerable to the results stemming from the final EIS approval which occurred earlier this year.

The prisoners are asking the courts to halt progress on the plan until they have received access to documents for review and comment.

One prisoner listed on the lawsuit, Manuel Gauna, stated: “I believe that construction of this particular prison is neglecting the people in Letcher and the people in the prison system. We as prisoners should have had the opportunity to participate in this public comment period for this project. Correctional officers are overworked at my facility [FCI Mendota]. I wish that the BOP would spend the money that it wants to use to build a new prison to properly staff this prison.”

Another prisoner named in the suit, Mark Jordan, currently at USP Tucson, explained, “Just last week President Trump publicly announced his support for the FIRST STEP Act, a reform bill aimed at reducing the federal prison population. The Letcher County project flies directly in the face of this reform narrative.”

Jordan continues, “Despite serious environmental and health hazards, the Justice Department solicited public comment from everyone except those most directly impacted by the project, the prisoners themselves. Health and safety issues aside, this is but a needless pork barrel project ushered through by Kentucky Representative Hal Rogers at a time when public opinion and policy-makers are trying to reduce the population of the federal prison system, not build more prisons merely for the sake of building more prisons.”

Prisoners aren’t the only ones concerned about the facility. Letcher County resident Elvenia Blair, who lives close the proposed prison, has been contesting the prison for several years.

She states, “Eastern Kentucky has the highest cancer rate in the nation. Forcing prisoners, correctional officers and their families to live, work and visit this environment is discrimination.”

Blair is also a board member of Friends of the Lilley Cornett Woods and North Fork Watershed, one of multiple local organizations which have expressed concerns about the impact of prison construction.

She continues, “With coal mining on its way out, the natural history of our mountains and wildlife is what we have left to attract people to the area. That will be disturbed with barbed wire, shooting ranges, heavy traffic flow of transporting prisoners. We won’t see economic growth from this.”

Emily Posner, Attorney for the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, also notes, “Federal legislation indicates a downward trend in prison population. My clients are in agreement with local residents who feel that there are much better ways to generate federal support in Appalachian communities than wasting hundreds of millions on an unnecessary prison.”

————

Abolitionist Law Center is a public interest law firm organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States. ALC has participated in every NEPA public comment period related to BOP’s proposed prison in Letcher County, KY.

Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons conducts grassroots organizing, advocacy and direct action to challenge the prison system which puts prisoners at risk of dangerous environmental conditions, as well as impacting surrounding communities and ecosystems by their construction and operation.

URGENT: Hurricane Michael Phone Zap

Hurricane Michael, now a Category 4, is slated to be the worst hurricane to hit Florida in over 100 years and the the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) refuses to evacuate 15 state prisons in mandatory evacuation zones.

Demands-

Immediate evacuation of all prisoners from every State Prison in the Mandatory Evacuation zone.

Stockpiling of Water and Food at every facility that may be impacted by power outages.

Numbers to Call-

Governor Rick Scott

Phone- (850) 488-7146

FDC Region 1 Director Angela Gordon(angela.gordon@fdc.myflorida.com)

Phone – (850) 627-5511

FDC Region 2 Director Eric V. Hummel (erich.hummel@fdc.myflorida.com)

Phone – (386) 496-6000

Federal Bureau of Prisons

Southeastern Regional Office- (678) 686-1200

No word on: FCI Marianna, FPC Pensacola, FCI Tallahassee

When you get a response use #EvacuateFLPrisoners and tweet @FightToxicPrisons & @iwoc_gnv! Numbers aren’t working? Tweet us with number updates too!

If you can, record the phone call and email it to us. If it turns out they’re lying, we’ll have voice-recorded evidence. (Email FightToxicPrisons@gmail.com)

Also, we don’t trust ANY Department of Corrections. Per Jailhouse Lawyers Speak’s advice, “If you know any prisoners in this storm path, it’s important to tell them to fill up any containers or bags with water NOW!!Prisons are notorious for not giving adequate drinking water to prisoners if any at all after the water is contaminated.”

Still Have Energy? Tweet the link to this post to any journalists and news outlets you can think of!

UPDATE 8:40am EST- The wife of a prisoner reports that “My husband is in Jefferson CI and they sandbagged all the entrances, they will leave the phones on all day today for them to keep in contact with us.” She is advising him to tell everyone he knows to fill up anything they can with water.

Levy County

Levy County Jail

Phone: (352) 486-5121

Okaloosa County

Okaloosa Correctional Institution and Work Camp

Phone- (850) 682-0931

Taylor County

Taylor Correctional Institution and Work Camp

Phone- (850) 838-4000

Wakulla County

Wakulla Correctional Institution

Phone- (850) 410-1895

Walton County

Walton Correctional Institution

Phone- (850) 951-1300

Franklin County

Franklin County Jail Facility (Right on Coast) Phone: +1 850-670-8500

Update: 10:00am Pacific Time- Mr. Summerhill told us that prisoners were evacuated yesterday, and that they have been split between Liberty (which is still in an evacuation zone) and Tallahassee

Please Continue to call and DEMAND South Carolina Prisoner have access to clean water!!! Reports from the inside per Jail Lawyers Speak: The biggest complaints of prisoners are power outages and water that is brown or greenish in Evans Corr and Lieber. They are not receiving water in Columbia and they also say a damn broke, which resulted in greenish or brown water.

PHONE ZAP UPDATE 9/13 9:47 EST

South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster (@HenryMcMaster, 803-734-2100) continues to refuse to evacuate state prisoners, including those in the evacuation zone. Federal Prisons have only given vague answers that they “are prepared” and say they can give no details due to “security reasons.” Both North Carolina and Virginia have stated they now have plans to evacuate prisoners within the projected path of Hurricane Florence*. We must continue to pressure them to ensure they meet our demands! We’ve prioritized South Carolina numbers for state and county facilities below.

Immediate evacuation of all prisoners from every State and Federal Prison, and County Jail at risk of flooding.

Stockpiling of Water and Food at every facility that may be impacted by power outages.

When you get a response tweet @FightXPrisons! (Or email FightToxicPrisons@gmail.com)

If you can, record the phone call and email it to us. If it turns out they’re lying, we’ll have voice-recorded evidence.

Also, we don’t trust ANY Department of Corrections. Per Jailhouse Lawyers Speak’s advice, “If you know any prisoners in this storm path, it’s important to tell them to fill up any containers or bags with water NOW!!Prisons are notorious for not giving adequate drinking water to prisoners if any at all after the water is contaminated.”

There’s a lot of numbers so maybe get with some friends and divide up!

Numbers to Call

(This is all on Eastern Standard Time- If you’re on the West coast call early!)

South Carolina Department of Corrections (Twitter- @SCDCNews)

UPDATE: Jailhouse Lawyers Speak has confirmed with prisoners inside Ridgeland Correctional and Lieber Correctional that they are NOT being evacuated. Ridgeland has told phone-zappers it’s not moving people without orders from the Governor or the Director of Prisons. We’ve updated the below numbers accordingly!

Jasper, Colleton, and Beaufort County’s in Southern SC are not under mandatory evacuation but SC Emergency Management Division retweeted a tweet from Horry County EMD telling residents of those counties to evacuate. Additionally, the Governor told residents of those counties in a live press-briefing 9/12 to leave if they can. Information for those county jails:

Beaufort County Detention Center (843) 255-5200

Colleton County Jail (843) 549-5742

Colleton County Sheriff Administration (843) 549-2211

Jasper County Detention Center(843) 717-3300 (Reports indicate they may have already evacuated)

As of Saturday, September 1, members of Gainesville IWOC/IWW, Fight Toxic Prisons and Occupy ICE Tampa kicked off a full-time encampment in response to a call for an escalation of prisoner strike solidarity over the Labor Day weekend.

Video produced by #OccupyPrisonsGNV supporter

The site is directly across from the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC) Gainesville Prison Work Camp, located at 1000 NE 55th Blvd, Gainesville. The goal of the camp, which backs up to Newnans Lake State Forest, is to maintain a 24/7 presence protesting slave labor contracts with the City, County and University of Florida as well as express solidarity with the nationwide prisoner strike occurring from August 21 through September 9.

The group says it plans to remain until the slave labor contracts with FDOC are severed and national prison strike demands have been met.

Since its inception last week, there have been over a hundred people participate in demonstrations launched from the site. These have included soft blockades of City-owned vehicles leaving for contract assignments, as well as people following labor crews to document and demonstrate at the work locations. This has resulted in overseers calling crews back into vans and departing, presumably to avoid proximity to the vocal protests.

Prisoners have repeatedly given consistent signs of appreciation for the protests, including nods, smiles and throwing up power fists, even in the face of overseers and guards. Activists affiliated with the camp have sent mail into prisoners to establish direct contact, but have repeatedly gotten their mail censored in a clear attempt to reduce inside/outside communication.

The camp has also experienced a threats and attacks, including a reckless-driving CO clipping a protestor with the rear-view mirror and a suspected off-duty guard driving off road to plow over signs and banners of the camp. Additionally, state and local law enforcement have attempted to intimidate protestors with threat of eviction and have pulled over participants on minor traffic issues, such as driving with a bike rack that could obstruct view of license plate.

Support for prison strike solidarity can be sent in donations HERE, and phone calls to the County demanding they cancel FDOC contracts: (352) 264-6900